Monday, December 3, 2012

Barresi - Fields Family Tree

I currently have 2,612 people in my family tree on Ancestry.com with 1,281 records. I couldn't be prouder of the family lineage that I have been able to tape together over the past five years and have been able to share with many family members. William Huff (b.1782 d. 1886) was my 4x great grandfather and I have been able to trace my family line back through much of English and European history through him. However, I was just notified by a Huff family historian, that the father I have (and many other Huff families have) listed for William, is not his correct father. At least it hasn't been verified. Bill Huff told me via e-mail, that through DNA testing, that they are not father and son

The parents of William have not been substantiated. Although he lived in close proximity with Edmund Huff, we have no record to show that William is his son. At one time, I believed that Edmund and William were father and son but the DNA evidence is not close enough to substantiate this close relationship. It would appear from DNA (and Max knows more about this than me) that they are related but the common ancestor is likely some number of generations removed. Again, I am not an expert but this is my interpretation of the data.

Though I don't care so much about the royalty I thought we had in the family line (i.e. the Plantagenets) it's the feeling of losing a connection to others. I thought I had built a solid resource for my family to use and I hope that I haven't broken the trust by providing false information for so long. Now hundreds of people could easily be wiped off our lineage. I could go from 2,612 people to 2,300 or so. However, I am not going to remove the information from my family tree until stronger evidence would require me to do so. However, I'm not going to continue researching that historic family line either. I'll keep working to determine who William Huff's father was, but it could take DNA testing to get a solid answer.

Also, if you know any male Huffs in our family line please let them know they can take a Y-DNA test. Grandma Fields (Nellie Huff) had at least two brothers, John and William, but I don't know what happened to them.